Roberta Ferrucci

• PsyD, PhD
• PostDoc Position at University of Milan

Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective surgical procedure for the treatment of Parkinson disease (PD) and other movement disorders. Immediate and delayed complications after DBS surgery have been described. Peri-lead edema (PLE) is a DBS-related complication whose etiology is still unknown. Moreover, PLE frequency and long-term ef...

Background Adaptive deep brain stimulation (aDBS) is a closed-loop system that adjusts stimulation based on patient biomarkers. This study evaluated the cognitive safety of aDBS in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods Seventeen PD patients with bilateral subthalamic DBS underwent cognitive assessments (attention, language, memory) six days post-surger...

Rehabilitative measure management and coordination are presented, stressing the interdisciplinary character of this complex procedure. Proposals are made concerning planning, setting and follow-up of speech therapy executed by logopaedist/speech and language pathologist (SLP). Therapeutic approaches based on linguistic principles are presented in d...

Research on the cerebellum has come a long and impressive way. While traditionally assumed as only engaged in motor control, rediscovery of early literature reports and recent studies also point to the cerebellum´s role in vestibular and cognitive affective functioning at the frontiers of psychiatry. Indeed, damage to the cerebellum often leads to...

Background . The present study aimed at deriving regression-based reliable change indices (RCIs) for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in an Italian cohort of non-demented Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. Methods N = 33 consecutive, non-demented PD patients were followed-up at a 5-to-8-month interval (M = 6.6; SD = 0.6) with the MoCA. Pra...

Objective Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) improves motor outcomes in Parkinson’s disease (PD) but may have adverse long-term effects on specific cognitive domains. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between total electrical energy (TEED) delivered by DBS and postoperative changes in verbal fluency...

Background Parkinson’s disease (PD) is often accompanied by gait disorders and freezing of gait (FoG), disabling symptoms that are resistant to conventional dopamine treatments. Given the cerebellum’s connectivity with the motor cortex and basal ganglia, and its implication in PD, combining transcranial direct current stimulation targeting the cere...

Background and purpose Boxing is associated with a high risk of head injuries and increases the likelihood of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This study explores the effects of sub‐concussive impacts on boxers by applying both linear and nonlinear analysis methods to electroencephalogram (EEG) data. Methods Twenty‐one boxers were selected (mean...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic rapidly boosted the introduction of certain changes in mental healthcare services, consequently driving up the adoption of remote care delivery options. We conducted an online Italian survey to evaluate telepsychology use, attitudes, acceptance, and training needs, as well as to understand patient-pr...

Introduction: The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the psychological well-being of millions of people around the world, and even more so among children. Contracting SARS-CoV-2, resulting in home confinement and restrictions on daily and school activities, led to negative effects on the mental health of the paedi...

Background/Objectives: High cognitive reserve (CR) has been shown to have beneficial effects on global cognition, cognitive decline, and risk of dementia in Parkinson’s disease (PD). We evaluated the influence of CR on the long-term cognitive outcomes of patients with PD who underwent subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS). Methods: T...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246388.].

Objectives: Fibromyalgia (FM) is characterised by chronic widespread pain, often associated with fatigue, sleep disturbance, cognitive and mood impairment. Pain is a complex and multidimensional experience that significantly impacts personal, social, and professional functioning. Psychological factors related to chronic pain include catastrophisin...

Introduction: The present study aimed at testing the longitudinal feasibility of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in an Italian cohort of non-demented amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. Methods: N = 39 non-demented ALS patients were followed-up at a 5-to-10-month interval (M = 6.8; SD = 1.4) with the MoCA and the Edinburgh Cog...

Background The use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to modulate pain, psychological aspects, and cognitive functions has increased in recent years. The present scoping review aims to investigate the use of tDCS in cancer patients and its significant impact on psychocognitive and pain related symptoms. Methods From the earliest ava...

Background Verbal fluency (VF) tasks are known as suitable for detecting cognitive impairment (CI) in Parkinson’s disease (PD). This study thus aimed to evaluate the psychometrics and diagnostics of the Alternate Verbal Fluency Battery (AVFB) by Costa et al. (2014) in an Italian cohort of non-demented PD patients, as well as to derive disease-speci...

Background Chronic pain is one of the most common and critical long-term effects of breast cancer. Digital health technologies enhance the management of chronic pain by monitoring physical and psychological health status and supporting pain self-management and patient treatment decisions throughout the clinical pathway. Objective This pilot study...

Objectives This study aimed at exploring (1) the motor and non-motor correlates of counterfactual thinking (CFT) abilities in non-demented amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients and (2) the ability of CFT measures to discriminate these patients from healthy controls (HCs) and patients with and without cognitive impairment. Methods N = 110 AL...

Chronic pain is a condition in which the use of digital health technologies, ecological momentary assessments, and digital communication tools may boost patient’s engagement and coping. Here we present the results of the PainRE-Life a project, financed by the Lombardy Region (Italy), aimed to develop a dynamic and integrated technology ecosystem ba...

tDCS is a noninvasive neuromodulation technique that induces changes in brain excitability and promotes cerebral plasticity. The device consists of a stimulator that delivers sustained direct subthreshold current (1.0–2.5 mA) through at least two connected electrodes placed on the scalp: the anode and the cathode, respectively connected to the posi...

Objective: To assess whether monopolar multi-electrode transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) montages might selectively affect deep brain structures through computational predictions and neurophysiological assessment. Methods: Electric field distribution in deep brain structures (i.e., thalamus and midbrain) were estimated through compu...

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a well-established treatment that significantly improves the motor symptoms of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD); however, patients may experience post-operative psychological distress and social maladjustments. This phenomenon has been shown to be related to patients’ pre-operative cognitive representations, su...

Background: The ecological validity of performance-based cognitive screeners needs to be tested in order for them to be fully recommended for use within clinical practice and research. Objectives: To examine, within an Italian cohort of non-demented PD patients, the ecological validity of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), by assessing it...

BACKGROUND Chronic pain is one of the most common and critical long-term effects of breast cancer. Digital health technologies enhance the management of chronic pain by monitoring physical and psychological health status and supporting pain self-management and patient treatment decisions throughout the clinical pathway. OBJECTIVE This pilot study...

Purpose: Breast cancer survivors commonly experience chronic pain following surgery. Despite the existence of treatment guidelines for cancer pain, a significant number of patients do not achieve satisfactory relief with available therapies. To fill this gap, this study aimed to explore the experience of chronic pain further, focusing on needs and...

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the experience with telemedicine in patients with cognitive impairments and their caregivers. Methods: We conducted a survey-based study of patients who completed neurological consultation via video link between January and April 2022. Results: A total of 62 eligible neurological video consultations were...

Functional movement disorders (FMD) are characterized by the presence of neurological symptoms that cannot be explained by typical neurological diseases or other medical conditions. First evidence showed that, compared to healthy controls (CTR), FMD patients presented increased levels of glutamate+glutamine in the anterior cingulate cortex/medial p...

The present study aimed at deriving, by means of a traditional "2 standard deviation-based" (2SD) approach, single task-level cutoffs for the Italian version of the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioral ALS Screen (ECAS). Cutoffs were derived - as M-2*SD - from the sample of healthy participants (HPs) included within 2016 Poletti et al.'s normative st...

BACKGROUND Chronic pain is frequently reported in breast cancer patients (BCPs), negatively affecting their quality of life. OBJECTIVE We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a home care strategy combining computerized rehabilitation, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), and remote telemonitoring via a web platform, in BCPs sufferi...

Background Chronic pain is a disabling symptom frequently reported in patients with breast cancer with a prevalence ranging from 25% to 60%, representing a major health issue. It has negative consequences on health status, causing psychological distress and affecting quality of life. Furthermore, the clinical management of chronic pain is often ina...

Clinical findings suggest that transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation (tsDCS) can modulate ascending sensitive, descending corticospinal, and segmental pathways in the spinal cord (SC). However, several aspects of the stimulation have not been completely understood, and realistic computational models based on MRI are the gold standard to...

Background: This study aimed at assessing the clinical usability of the Story-Based Empathy Task (SET) in non-demented amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. Methods: N = 106 non-demented ALS patients and N = 101 healthy controls (HCs) were administered the SET, which includes three subtests assessing Emotion Attribution (SET-EA), Intenti...

Background This study aimed at assessing the cross-sectional and longitudinal clinimetrics and feasibility of the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) in non-demented Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. Methods N = 109 PD patients underwent the FAB and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). A subsample of patients further underwent a thorough motor,...

Non-invasive deep brain stimulation is a novel field of research that aims to affect deep brain regions’ activity through non-invasive stimulation. Recent computational and clinical findings have fostered the interest on transcranial direct current stimulation as non-invasive deep brain stimulation techniques, and several optimization strategies ha...

Background The present study aimed to determine whether patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), semantic verbal fluency (SVF), and the semantic-phonemic discrepancy (SPD) could predict abnormal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) phosphorylated tau (P-tau181) and total tau (T-tau) levels.Methods Phonemic ve...

Background: Mindfulness trainings have shown promising results as treatment for behavioural symptoms in several pathologies. In addition, mindfulness protocols induced an improvement in memory and attention. Therefore, mindfulness could be an effective intervention for patients affected by Parkinson’s disease (PD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI...

Emerging evidence indicates that the etiologic agent responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), can cause neurological complications. COVID-19 may induce cognitive impairment through multiple mechanisms. The aim of the present study was to describe the possible neuropsychological and metabolic neuroimaging consequences of COVID-19 12 mont...

Long-COVID is a clinical condition in which patients affected by SARS-CoV-2 usually report a wide range of physical and cognitive symptoms from 3 to 6 months after the infection recovery. The aim of the current study was to assess the link between self-reported long-COVID symptoms and reaction times (RTs) in a self-administered Visual Detection Tas...

Introduction Functional hypothalamic amenorrhea (FHA) is a clinical condition associated with high levels of physiological and psychological stress ranging from weight loss to maladaptive behavior and coping skills. A reliable measure of the psychophysiological response to stress and the ability to cope with stimuli is heart rate variability (HRV)....

Background This study aimed at testing the ability of the frontal assessment battery (FAB) to differentiate between patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), as well as comparing its discriminative power to that of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Methods The present retrospective cohort i...

Background This study aimed at assessing the diagnostic properties of the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) as to its capability to (1) discriminate healthy controls (HCs) from patients with Huntington’s disease (HD) and (2) identify cognitive impairment in this population. Materials Thirty-eight consecutive HD patients were compared to 73 HCs on t...

Background This study aimed at providing diagnostic properties and normative cut-offs for the Italian ECAS Carer Interview (ECAS-CI). Materials N = 292 non-demented ALS patients and N = 107 healthy controls (HCs) underwent the ECAS-CI and the Frontal Behavioural Inventory (FBI). Two ECAS-CI measures were addressed: (1) the number of symptoms (NoS;...

Background The aim of this study was to explore the construct validity and diagnostic properties of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) in non-demented patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Materials A total of 61 consecutive patients and 50 healthy controls (HCs) were administered the 36-item RMET. Additionally, patients und...

Objective: This study aimed at estimating the prevalence of language impairment (LI) in a large, clinic-based cohort of non-demented ALS patients and assessing its underpinnings at motor and non-motor levels. Methods: N=348 non-demented ALS patients underwent the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS), as well as an assessment of...

This study aimed at providing standardized regression-based (SRB) reliable change indices (RCIs) for the Italian Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioral ALS Screen (ECAS). Thirty-one consecutive ALS patients undergoing the ECAS were followed-up (T1) at 6.5 ± 1 months (range = 5–8). Ceiling/floor effects, practice effect, and test–retest reliability were...

Background The present study aimed at evaluating the diagnostic properties of the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) in non-demented ALS patients by addressing the Edinburgh Cognitive Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS) as the gold standard, as well as by examining the association between its administrability and scores with motor-functional measures. Mat...

In recent years, a growing body of literature has investigated the use of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques to influence cerebellar activity and the effects of cerebellar stimulation on other brain regions through its multiple complex projections. From the early 1990s, with the discovery of the so-called cerebellar inhibition (CBI),...

Background The present study aimed at (1) assessing the diagnostic properties of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in non-demented ALS patients and at (2) exploring the MoCA administrability according to motor-functional status. Materials N = 348 patients were administered the MoCA and Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS)....

Transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) techniques, such as direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), cause neurophysiological and behavioral modifications as responses to the electric field are induced in the brain. Estimations of such electric fields are based mainly on computational studies, and...

Implanting deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes in patients with Parkinson’s disease often results in the appearance of a non-infectious, delayed-onset edema that disappears over time. However, the time window between the DBS electrode and DBS stimulating device implant is often used to record local field potentials (LFPs) which are used both to...

This review discussed the effects of the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the psychological wellbeing of people with Parkinson's disease (PD) focusing specifically on depressive symptoms, anxiety levels, sleep, and quality of life (QoL). Together with motor symptoms, psychological symptoms are common and disabling condi...

Psychological variables may be crucial in favoring or discouraging health-related behaviors, including vaccine acceptance. This study aimed to extend the previous literature by outlining the psychological profile associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in a sample of Italian citizens. Between April and May 2021, 1122 Italian volunteers completed...

Eye movement abnormalities in association with cognitive and emotional deficits have been described in neurological, neurodevelopmental, and psychiatric disorders. Eye-Tracking (ET) techniques could therefore enhance cognitive interventions by contingently providing feedback to patients. Since no consensus has been reached thus far on this approach...

Cancer-related chronic pain (CP) represents a critical clinical issue through the disease, severely compromising the quality of life (QoL) of patients and the family environment. The current review employed a narrative method to synthesize the main results about the impact of cancer-related CP on QoL, adopting a multidimensional and threefold visio...

Depressive disorders are one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a safe, simple, non-invasive brain stimulation technique showing considerable effectiveness in improving depressive symptoms. Most studies to date have applied anodal tDCS to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC),...

This work aimed to estimate the distribution of the electric field generated by a combined cerebellar and frontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for treatment-resistant depression using electromagnetics computational techniques applied to a realistic head human model. Results showed that the stronger electric fields occur mainly in...

Psychological distress among healthcare professionals, although already a common condition, was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This effect has been generally self-reported or assessed through questionnaires. We aimed to identify potential abnormalities in the electrical activity of the brain of healthcare workers, operating in different role...

Traditionally, medical care and research in Parkinson’s disease (PD) have been conducted through in-person visit. The recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has profoundly impacted the delivery of in-person clinical care. We conducted an online survey to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on access to telehealth care, interviewing both...

Emotional processing impairments, resulting in a difficulty to decode emotions from faces especially for negative emotions, are characteristic non-motor features of Parkinson’s disease (PD). There is limited evidence about the specific contribution of the cerebellum to the recognition of emotional contents in facial expressions even though patients...

Objective The aim of the present study was to investigate whether patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) had changes in their level of performance in extra-dimensional shifting by implementing a novel analysis method, utilizing the new alternate phonemic/semantic fluency test. Method We used machine learning (ML) in order to develop high accuracy...

Background: Cognitive dysfunction has been observed following recovery from COVID-19. To the best of our knowledge, however, no study has assessed the progression of cognitive impairment after one year. We aimed to assess cognitive functioning at one year from hospital discharge, and eventual associations with specific clinical variables. Methods...

From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of surgical masks became widespread. However, they occlude an important part of the face and make it difficult to decode and interpret other people’s emotions. To clarify the effect of surgical masks on configural and featural processing, participants completed a facial emotion recognition task to di...

Objectives Despite the large amount of literature examining the potential influence of subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) on psychiatric symptoms and cognitive disorders, only a few studies have focused on its effect on personality. We investigated the correlation between total electrical energy delivered (TEED) and the occurrence...

Background and aim Increasing evidence shows that approximately half of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) displays cognitive (ALSci) or behavioural (ALSbi) impairment, or both (ALScbi). Aim of our study is to assess whether the burden of upper (UMN) and lower motor neuron (LMN) involvement is associated with the presence of cognitiv...

Patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display distinctive neurophysiological characteristics associated with significant cognitive, emotional, and behavioral symptoms. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied to the frontal or temporoparietal lobes has demonstrated potential to reduce the severity of ASD-related symptoms. Recen...

The cerebellum is involved in multiple closed-loops circuitry which connect the cerebellar modules with the motor cortex, prefrontal, temporal, and parietal cortical areas, and contribute to motor control, cognitive processes, emotional processing, and behavior. Among them, the cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathway represents the anatomical substratum...

The authors will present a comprehensive account of the neurological aspects of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The aim is to provide a practical clinical book which will serve as a guide for clinicians from all specialties involved in the management of COVID-19 patients. The authors share the extensive clinical experience gained in major hospitals in Lombar...

Even though increasing literature describes changes in emotional processing in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), efforts to summarize relevant findings are lacking in the field. A systematic literature review was performed to provide a critical and up-to-date account of emotional abilities in ALS. References were identified by searches of PubMed...

The Italian state adopted serious safety measures to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020. The lockdown was associated with negative psychological consequences in healthy populations, mostly in terms of anxiety, distress, depression, and even traumatic symptoms. This longitudinal study aimed at briefly documenting the psychological impact...

In the last 5–7 years, cerebellar and spinal DC stimulation received growing attention by experimental and clinical neuroscientists. Although the clinical efficacy of cerebellar and spinal tDCS awaits confirmation in large, clinical, randomized controlled studies, there are now several important key points underlying their mechanisms of action that...

The first clinical experience with electric fish, and a long history of application of electrotherapeutic techniques, started from the eighteenth century leading to the modern use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). This history had various degrees of success, and the treatment of mental disorders using electricity followed a cyclica...

Objective Although oculomotor abnormalities (OMAs) are not usually considered prominent features of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), they may represent potential clinical markers of neurodegeneration, especially when investigated together with cognitive and behavioral alterations. The aim of our study was to identify patterns of clinically evid...

Background and Aims: Chronic pain is a complex clinical condition, often devastating for patients and unmanageable with pharmacological treatments. Converging evidence suggests that transcutaneous spinal Direct Current Stimulation (tsDCS) might represent a complementary therapy in managing chronic pain. In this randomized, double-blind and sham-con...

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s psychological well-being, and hospitalized patients could face an even greater risk of psychological distress. We aimed to study resilience in recovered COVID-19 patients after hospital discharge. We recruited 50 patients (38 males, aged 28–77) who were hospitalized for COVID-19 between March and...

Background: The understanding of factors that shape risk perception is crucial to modulate the perceived threat and, in turn, to promote optimal engagement in preventive actions. Methods: An on-line, cross-sectional, survey was conducted in Italy between May and July 2020 to investigate risk perception for COVID-19 and the adoption of preventive me...

PurposeIt has been widely shown that dissociative features might play a fundamental role in producing body image distortions in patients affected by eating disorders. Here, we hypothesize that the Mirror Gazing Test (MGT), a task consisting in mirror exposure in a condition of sensory deprivation, would elicit dissociative symptoms in a group of pa...

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments to impose quarantines and lockdowns as containment strategy, raising concerns about mental health and low level of physical activity performed by quarantined populations. In this study, we assess the level of physical activity and psychological wellbeing in a sample of the Italian population during lockd...

Understanding the determinants of risk perception for COVID-19 might help to promote self-preventive behaviours. This scoping review aimed to map the extent, variety and characteristics of the evidence on the possible determinants of risk perception for COVID-like diseases. PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science were searched for original, peer-reviewed...